It was a rough weekend for the Estevan TS&M Bruins against two of the top clubs in the South Division of the Saskatchewan Bantam AA Hockey League.
The Bruins were blanked 4-0 by the third-place Yorkton Terriers on Friday and lost 7-2 to the first-place Prairie Storm on Saturday.
The losses drop the Bruins (2-9-1) to last place in the South Division, one point behind both Moose Jaw and the Regina Oilers.
Assistant coach Brad Pierson said he was happy with his team's execution on Saturday but that the undefeated Storm were too much to handle - in particular, Jayden Halbgewachs, the top scorer in the division. Halbgewachs led the Storm with two goals and three assists.
"We got more pucks to the net. I thought we played a strong game. We did the things we wanted to. We got killed, essentially, by one guy again," Pierson said. "I hate to say it, but it's a one-man show out there with a very good supporting cast and when you can't contain him, it's going to be ugly."
The Bruins opened the scoring on Saturday on a goal by Tyler Hengen, but the Storm rattled off three goals before the end of the first period, courtesy of Halbgewachs, Matthew Perkins and Taylor Ross.
Nolan Reid and Riley Phillipson scored in the second to give the Storm a 5-1 edge.
Kaelan Holt scored early in the third period for Estevan to cut the deficit to three goals, but the Storm responded with more goals from Halbgewachs and Josh Beaudry.
It was a penalty-filled game with minimal time spent at even strength, including a six-minute penalty to the Bruins in the first period and a seven-minute penalty in the third.
"It was one of those cases where I didn't feel we deserved to kill that many, but we were effective. In the third period, we killed off a long stretch of a 5-on-3 and then finished off a 5-on-4. We couldn't be happier with the kids in that event. Where the frustration comes (from) is we didn't feel we should have been killing as many as we did," said Pierson.
On Friday, the Terriers led 1-0 after 40 minutes before adding three goals to their total in the third.
Caleb Sutter scored twice for Yorkton, along with goals from Kholton Shewchuk and Kylan Shea.
"We tried to play as too many individuals," Pierson said of Friday's loss. "We just didn't have that intensity around the net and way too many turnovers in the slot, in the neutral zone."
Carter Phair was in goal for the Bruins in both games. With the Bruins sitting in last place, Pierson said two main areas that need to improve are creating sustained pressure in the offensive zone and eliminating turnovers.
"Our biggest thing has to be moving that puck amongst five guys and getting a sustained rush, getting heavy pressure and getting quality shots on net. We continually turn over the puck in the neutral zone, we continually turn over the puck in the offensive zone, we get into good shooting positions and we don't shoot the puck. We just gotta keep it simple and when we see that opportunity to get the puck to the net, we have to do it," Pierson said.
"The bottom line is that our team is just a bit too fancy and we have to simplify it and do the little things."
The bantam AAs are at a 20-team tournament in Prince Albert this weekend.
